Images
by SeatedQueenintheSky
Summary: Images didn't leave him easily, even after he was turned. And now they'll always be engrained.


**A/N: **A quick songfic about Jasper's human life and a woman he loved. It's set to the song Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy, which I do no own, just as I do not own Twilight. So I hope you enjoy it and not hate it so much!

* * *

**Images**

_By SeatedQueenintheSky_

**Your fingertips across my skin, the palm trees swaying in the wind.**

Before Alice, before Maria, there had been Hannah. She was beautiful. Long black hair and hazel eyes that danced in the light whenever she looked at you. Her gypsy background was uncommon around the parts of the country he lived in. Jasper Whitlock had been in love with her, so sure of the life that they would have together. There was nothing that could keep the two of them apart and he swore that to her. He swore it to her when they were in Galveston, lying on the beach with the sun shining down on them. He ran his fingers across her arm before he kissed their promise true.

**You sang me Spanish Lullabies, the sweetest sadness in your eyes, Clever trick…**

Her voice was lilted with the accent as she sang softly, her fingers running through his hair. His blue eyes looked up to her, seeing a far off sadness that left her worlds away from him, but he saw nothing of it.

"La isla bonita," she sang softly the words nonsense to him, but words that left him relishing her more and more none the less. She was his, and his alone, and he had thought that she felt the same. So why was it that whenever she sung of that far off island, the sadness that held in her eyes for so long would leak into her voice. He didn't notice, he chose not too. He chose to be blissfully unaware.

**I never want to see you unhappy…. I thought you want the same for me. **

He did what ever he could after those songs to pick her back up. Flowers, presents. Anything he could at all. And she seemed to be able to deal with it, her smile lighting up his world, every time he made her laugh. He was so unaware.

**We walked along a crowded street, you took my hand and danced with me.**

It was something they made sure to do all the time, much to the amusement of everyone in our growing town. She was the one who started it. Together they would dance from shop to shop, to the imaginary music inside her head. Somehow, Jasper always knew what song it was, another sign to him that they were meant to be together. He would twirl her around as she laughed out loud. It was a picture he wanted to remember forever.

**And when you left you kissed my lips, you told me you would never let me forget these images.**

Jasper stared at her, his eyes wide.

"What?" he asked as she stood with a shawl covering her black hair from his view. Once again her dancing eyes held that sadness, only this time, Jasper had the feeling he wouldn't be able to wipe it away. She was leaving, and she wasn't coming back. "Bu-But… we… I thought…" The boy had never stuttered before, only she could do this to him. Only she could make him hate himself so much. "If this is about the war, I won't enlist, just don't leave. Please."

He had begged her to stay, but it didn't change anything. She had granted him one last night, and he took advantage of it. Watching her, committing every curve of her body, the shade of her skin, every color that was in her eyes to memory. She had been his first, he hadn't been hers.

**I can not go to the ocean, I can not walk the streets at night. I can not wake up in the morning without you on my mind. So your gone and I'm haunted, and I bet you are just fine.**

When he woke up the next morning, she was gone. Almost as if she had never been there, but he could smell her, he could still taste her on his lips. He sat up, his eyes hard as he stared at the place where she had been.

Four months passed, and Jasper joined the confederacy. He was a an excellent soldier, moved up the ranks easily. He stayed focused, for every thought led him back to her. Every morning she was the first thing on his mind, and the last thing before he went to bed. If he went anywhere near water, the soldier would get irritable, making it easy for fights to break out among his company. On any crowded street he got claustrophobic. He had it bad, and this was one stint of sickness he couldn't get rid of.

**Did I make it that easy to walk right in and out of my life?**

She's back. That was the first thing he thought when he saw Maria. His mind had let her become his Hannah. She had looked so much like her, the tanned skin, dark hair. It wasn't until he had gotten to her eyes that he felt his rising heart drop right back to his stomach. His feet came together and he bowed stiffly. The three girls took it as politeness. How dare this woman try and look like his Hannah.

He wasn't thinking clearly. He should have been.

**Goodbye my almost lover, goodbye my hopeless dream. I'm trying not to think about you.**

He found her easily once he was changed. Maria hadn't noticed his absence, they had been growing farther and farther apart. He just wanted to see her once, see what had become of the gypsy girl who had stole his heart. Maria had told him he wouldn't be able to remember her, that human memories were never able to be saved once you were changed. But that wasn't true. He could remember every moment he had with her. They were like pictures frozen in his sleepless brain.

His Hannah.

He found her in Mexico. She wasn't alone. With her was a dark haired, bright eyed boy. He was lighter than her, with glowing blue eyes. And for some reason he looked so familiar, but Jasper didn't care. His black eyes focused back on his Hannah. She was smiling at the young boy. How come he got all the attention, and she had simply left him alone? Had she even loved him at all? His conscience told him to leave. He hadn't fed and he was going to do something stupid.

But anger clouded his judgment. She left him, and found this little boy who had the far away look in his eyes that she always did. How come he should get to be happy? How come he got to have his Hannah? He stalked them like the predator he was. He stalked them for a month, surprising himself with the lack of blood he had. Anger seemed to fuel his drive, his refusal of blood.

**Can't you just let me be?**

He approached her quietly. The boy had seen him, but his Hannah had yet to even realize he was there. Finally she turned, her hazel eyes meeting his black ones.

"Jasper?" she asked, her lilt more pronounced in her current home. She smiled at him and wrapped her arms about his neck. He let her scent over wash him, and he knew he was gone for. His arms wrapped about her waist and he tightened the grip until she couldn't get away. His face buried in the crook of her neck as he dry sobbed there. She didn't know what could have been happening. A terrified shriek left her lips as he bit into her neck, sucking her dry to the screams of the little boy.

Her blood was heaven and hell all at the same time. He pulled away and with a kiss to her temple, he dropped her lifeless body. The boy ran to her, shaking the woman and crying a word Jasper didn't think he could have heard correctly.

"Mama! Mama! Por favor, mama!"

Jasper looked at the boy, his now red eyes widened in surprise. There was a familiarity in the boy's frightened blue eyes, in the way his hair curled right under his ears, in the sharpness in his cheeks that the young vampire didn't want to see. He watched the scene for a moment before he fled, leaving the boy an his Hannah there in the empty street.

**So long my luckless romance, my back is turned on you. Should have know you'd bring me heartache, almost lovers always do.**


End file.
